#RomanticFridayWriters - Challenge No 28- My story, 'Ties That Bind'. My Demon Spirit's Contest.

Interested in a Short Story Pitch contest? See next post...

My post today is doing double duty. My Demon Spirits was looking for more entries for her Spreading Holiday Cheer Story Contest which closes tomorrow 31st, so I'm making my #RomanticFridayWriters story fit the submission guidelines as well.

Demon's Guidelines: (Read more here...)

 I want to read your most original, scary oruplifting holiday story (I like both, so since this is my contest - I figure I'll make you write what I like to read!).  Now, notice I didn't say "Christmas"; it can be ANY holiday you celebrate!  It does NOT have to be a holiday that occurs in winter months.  The entry can be no more than 500 words.

So here is my story:

TIES THAT BIND

Even hassling through airport security I was thrilled to be home; happiness bubbled around me like spilled champagne. 

‘Home for the holidays?’
‘Si.’ 

‘No place like home, si, especially at Christmas?’ 

‘Si.’ 


I wasn’t going to share misery with my fellow travellers. Wasn’t telling them of the lover who’d abandoned me in the cold Connecticut snow. Wasn’t sharing how he’d snatched the diamond from my finger and flown off, the miserable excuse for a human being.

Ah! Peace and goodwill all around. Forget him and his shifty ways!

The taxi dashed through the gauzy light, past fountains of serpents that tossed bouquets of diamonds at me.

The Via dei Fori Imperiali dazzled with flickering coloured lights. I could see the Piazza Venezia just a blink away.


 ‘Stop!’

Laughing at the terrified driver, I threw some euros into the air and headed for home. Fifteen minutes before the gates clanged shut. The pesky tourists would be gone.

The Roman Forum – twilight - air tinged with bluish shadowy light playing on ancient stone pillars rising into the darkening sky. Ahhhhh.

I drifted inside the gates; the Senate and the basilicas winked at me, shimmering with glory of times past. I hailed ghostly figures as they darted through slick cobbled avenues on the Palatine Hill, plotting assassinations and planning world domination.

I was lost in the arches, the Colosseum, the monuments. They whispered to me of how time layered over everything, cemented in the gaps, repaired the cracks and broken bits. 

Every stone glowed in the murky haze, every patch of moss shone a spiky blackish-green, with little fingers clinging to edges like mountaineers unroped and fallen.


I surveyed my pleasure garden sitting snugly in its bowl overlooked by the imperious Hills of Rome.

The Forum was my own ruined city, my lover who’d never let me go.

One look at me and the visitors hurtled to the Colosseum exit. I wished them a sly ‘Godspeed’ then sauntered further into the twilight.

Darkness shadows the sky

The Forum is silent

but I hear beating hearts

inside these ancient walls

I dance on the cobblestones - tap, tap, tap.

This is home. High five!

Not Connecticut. Twist and shout!

Humans always ponder broken relationships.

Can time layer over the breaks, the bitterness?

Can time cement the gaps?
Yes, if you hang around long enough, mwhahhahh!

I salute the Praetorian Guard, click my heels, draw my cloak closer and float with my ghosts.

God I love this place.

©DeniseCovey2011


Image source: theethicalscumbag.blogspot.com

RomanticFridayWriters is a fortnightly meme.
Submissions of prose and poetry of 400 words or less on a given theme.
Some sort of romantic element in story.
All writers welcome!

Word count: 413
Full Critique Acceptable - go for your life! I had fun!